Architectural Terms and Definitions

ABUTMENT

Solid masonry placed to counteract the lateral thrust of a vault or arch and so give the arch or vault strength.

AEDICULE

An architectural surround, consisting usually of two columns or pilasters supporting a pediment. Literally means 'little building'.

AISLE

The main aisle runs laterally down the nave of a church. It is divided from the rest of the nave by rows of pillars or columns, which support the roof or an upper wall containing windows (called a clearstory). Other aisles may run off from the main aisle in larger churches.

ALABASTER

A compacted variety of sulphate of lime, or gypsum, of fine texture. Usually white and translucent, but sometimes yellow, red or grey. Often carved into vases, busts, and memorial tablets in churches.

ALTAR

A structure found in churches before which the priest recites divine offices and upon which the Eucharist Mass is celebrated. Often elevated, covered with a cloth, and typically a table in stone or wood.

ALTARPIECE

A panel, painted or sculptured, situated above and behind an altar. Sometimes made of three panels hinged together so that it can be folded up, when it is called a triptych.

AMBULATORY

An aisle around the apse at the east end of a church.

APRON

Raised panel below a window or wall monument or tablet.

APSE

Vaulted semicircular or polygonal end of a chancel or chapel.

ARCADE

Series of arches supported by piers or columns. Blind arcade or arcading: the same applied to the wall surface.

ARCH

Round-headed, i.e. semi-circular; pointed, i.e. consisting of two curves, each drawn from one centre, and meeting in a point at the top; segmental, i.e. in the form of a segment.

ARCHITRAVE

Formalized lintel, the lowest member of the classical entablature. Also the moulded frame of a door or window (often borrowing the profile of a classical architrave).

ARRIS

Sharp edge where two surfaces meet at an angle.

ASHLAR

Worked stone with flat surface, usually of regular shape and square edges. As opposed to rough stone, which is not squared off. Due to its expense, you will often find buildings made of rough stone or rubble with quoins of Ashlar at the corners of the building, often laid alternately with their long-side and short side facing out; this is a common feature of Regency architecture.

ATRIUM

(Plural: atria): inner court of a Roman or C20 house; in a multi-storey building, a toplit covered court rising through all storeys.

ATTIC

Small top storey within a roof. Also the storey above the main entablature of a classical façade.

AUMBRY

A small cupboard recessed into the wall of a church near the altar. Used for keeping sacred vessels and vestments.

BALUSTER

A short post or pillar in a series that supports a rail, forming a balustrade. May be curved or straight.

BALUSTRADE

Series of balusters supporting a handrail or coping.

BAROQUE

Style originating in Rome c.1600 and current in England c.1680 –1720, characterized by dramatic massing and silhouette and the use of the giant order.

BASEMENT

Lowest, subordinate storey; hence the lowest part of classical elevation, below the piano nobile.

BASILICA

A Roman public hall; hence an aisled building with a clerestory.

BATTER

An inclined face of wall; hence battered

BAYS

Internal compartments of a building; each divided from the other not by solid walls but by divisions only marked in the side walls (columns, pilasters, etc) or the ceiling (beams, etc). Also external divisions of a building by fenestration (windows).

BAY WINDOW

Window of one or more storeys projecting from the face of a building. Canted: with a straight front and angled sides. Bow window: curved. Oriel: rests on corbels or brackets and starts above ground level; also the bay window at the dais end of a medieval great hall.

BELFRY

Chamber or stage in a tower where bells are hung.

BOND

The way in which brick courses are laid:
Header: brick laid so that the end only appears on the face of the wall. Stretcher: brick laid so that the side only appears on the face of the wall.
English Bond: method of laying bricks so that alternate courses or layers on the face of the wall are composed of headers or stretchers only.
Flemish Bond: method of laying bricks so that alternate headers or stretchers appear in each course on the face of the wall.

BLIND ARCH

An arch applied to a wall for decorative purposes, without openings between the arches.

BLIND ARCADE

A row of decorative arches that is attached to a wall surface and has no real openings.

BRESSUMER

(Lit. breast- beam): big horizontal beam supporting the wall above, especially in a jettied building.

BRISES-SOLEIL

Projecting fins or canopies which deflect direct sunlight from windows.

BRICK

A moulded rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln until hard and used as a building and paving material.

BULLSEYE WINDOW

Small oval window, set horizontally.

BUTTRESS

Vertical member projecting from a wall to stabilize it or to resist the lateral thrust of an arch, roof, or vault. A flying buttress transmits the thrust to a heavy abutment by means of an arch or half-arch.

CAPITAL

Head or top part of a column

CARYATID

Whole female figure supporting an entablature or other similar member.

Termini Caryatids: female busts or demi-figures or three-quarter figures supporting an entablature or other similar member and placed at the top of termini pilasters.

CASEMENT

A metal or wooden framed window that is hinged to open outward or inward.

CAST IRON

Hard and brittle, cast in a mould to the required shape. Wrought iron is ductile, strong in tension, forged into decorative patterns or forged and rolled into e.g. bars, joists, boiler plates; mild steel is its modern equivalent, similar but stronger.

CATSLIDE ROOF

A pitched roof covering one side of a building and continuing at the same pitch over a rear extension.

CHAMFER

Surface made by cutting across the square angle of a stone block, piece of wood, etc., at an angle of 45° to the other two surfaces.

CHANCEL

Part of the E end of a church set apart for the use of the officiating clergy.

CHOIR

The space reserved for the clergy in the church, usually east of the transept but, in some instances, extending into the nave.

CENOTAPH

A monument erected in honor of a dead person or persons whose remains lie elsewhere. Here in Britain, often represented by a memorial monument to the fallen of the two World Wars.

CHEVRON

A 'zigzag' pattern characteristic of Romanesque decoration that is often carved around pillars, arches and doorways.

CLADDING

External covering or skin applied to a structure, especially a framed one.

CLASSICAL

Used here as the term for Greek and Roman architecture and any subsequent styles inspired by it.

CLERESTORY or CLEARSTORY

The upper story of the nave, transepts, and choir of a church, containing windows, and rising above the aisle roofs.    Designed to bring light into the church, and to relieve the weight on the walls and arches.  Also, an upper storey of windows to bring light into a factory workshop.

CLOSE STUDDING

The division of a wall into narrow panels by vertical studs in timber framed buildings.

COFFERING

Arrangement of sunken panels (coffers), square or polygonal, decorating a ceiling, vault, or arch.

COLLONADE

Range of columns supporting an entablature.

COLUMN

A classical, upright structural member of round section with a shaft, a capital, and usually a base.

COMPOUND PIER

A pier with several shafts attached or detached, or half-shafts against the faces of it. Compound piers have angular pieces separating the rolls, clustered piers do not.

COMPOUND PILLAR

A pillar that is either made up of a solid core surrounded by a cluster of shafts, or is simply a cluster of shafts.

CONSOLE

Bracket of curved outline.

COPING

Protective course of masonry or brickwork capping a wall.

CORBEL

Projecting block supporting something above. Corbelling brick or masonry courses built out beyond one another to support a chimney-stack, window, etc.

CORNICE

Flat-topped ledge with moulded underside, projecting along the top of a building or feature, especially as the highest member of the classical entablature. Also the decorative moulding in the angle between wall and ceiling.

COURSE

Continuous layer of building material, such as brick or tile, on a wall or roof of a building.

COURSED RUBBLE

Wall made with stones or flints leveled up in courses.

COVING

A concave surface forming a junction between a ceiling and a wall.

CRENELLATED

Having repeated square indentations like those in a battlement on a castle.

CROSSING

The space in a cruciform church formed by the intersection of the nave and the transept.

CROSSING

The area in a cruciform church that is formed by the intersection (crossing) of a nave and transept of equal width.

CRUCIFORM

Cross-shaped. Most often used to describe churches, with the nave forming the body of the cross, the altar and choir at the top (usually to the east), and the transept forming the arms pf the cross.

CRUCK

A pair of timbers that act as the principal members for a roof.

CRYPT

Underground or half-underground area, usually below the east end of a church.

CUPOLA

Small polygonal or circular domed turret crowning a roof.

CURATIN WALL

A connecting wall between the towers of a castle. Also a non-load-bearing external wall applied to a C20 framed structure.

DADO

The finishing (often with paneling) of the lower part of a wall, usually in a classical interior; in origin a formalized continuous pedestal. Dado rail: the moulding along the top of the dado.

DENTIL

Small square block used in series in classical cornices. Dormer (window) - Window placed vertically in the sloping plane of a roof.

DRESSED STONE

Blocks of stone that have been trimmed and given a smooth face, i.e. ashlar stone.

DRESSINGS

The stone or brickwork worked to a finished face about an angle, opening, or other feature.

EAVES

That part of a sloping roof which is overhanging.

ELEVATION

One of the external faces of a building; also, an architect's drawing of a facade, set out to scale.

EMBRASURE

A splayed opening in a wall that frames an opening.

ENTABLATURE

In classical architecture, collective name for the three horizontal members (architrave, frieze and cornice) carried by a wall or a column.

ENTASIS

Very slight convex deviation from a straight line, used to prevent an optical
illusion of concavity.

EPITAPH

Hanging wall monument.

FAÇADE

The front of a building.

FASCIA

Plain horizontal band, e.g. in an architrave or on a shop front.

FENESTRATION

The arrangement of windows in a façade.

FINIAL

A sculptured ornament, often in the shape of a leaf or flower, at the top of a gable, pinnacle, or similar structure.    

FLEMISH BOND

In brickwork, a bond in which each course (row) consists of headers (butt end) and stretchers (long side) laid alternately, each header being centered on the stretcher above and below it.

FLUTE or FLUTING

Vertical channeling, roughly semicircular in cross section and used principally on columns and pilasters.

FLYING BUTTRESS

A free-standing buttress linked to a church wall by an arch or part of an arch that serves to transmit the outward thrust of the wall to the buttress, thus relieving strain on the walls. Allows churches to be built very tall in the Gothic and Perpendicular styles.

FOLIATED

Carved with leaves.

FONT

A basin for holding baptismal water in a church.

FRENCH DOOR or WINDOW

A tall casement window that reaches to the floor and opens like a door. It is a popular, modern, feature that brings more light into a home.

FRIEZE

The middle member of the classical entablature, sometimes ornamented. Also A decorative horizontal band, as along the upper part of a wall in a room.

GABLE

The generally triangular section of wall at the end of a double-pitched roof, occupying the space between the two slopes of the roof. By extension, sometimes refers to the whole end wall of a building or wing having a pitched roof.  May also refer to a triangular, usually ornamental architectural section, as one above an arched door or window.

GALLERY

The second story of an ambulatory or aisle. Also a long passage or room.

GARGOYLE

A grotesque carving, usually in the form of a human or animal, at the end of a spout designed to carry rainwater clear of the wall of a building.

GARRET

A room on the top floor of a house, typically under a pitched roof. May also be used as a synonym for an attic.

GEORGIAN

The period during the reign of the four Georges (1714-1830). In architecture it saw the rise of Palladianism; the styles of Robert Adam; the fashions for Rococo, Chinoiserie, Gothick and Hindoo. It also embraced early Gothic and Greek revivals and Neoclassicism.

GLAZING BARS

Wooden or sometimes metal bars separating and supporting window panes.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

A style of architecture that was prevalent in Western Europe from about 1200 until 1550. In England, Gothic is normally divided into three succeeding phases - Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. Some of the characteristic features of this school of architecture are; pointed arches (lancets); tall, slender pillars; flying buttresses; and large windows often with ornate tracery. The Victorians revived and exaggerated the Gothic style.

GROINED

A roof with sharp edges at intersection of cross-vaults.

GROTESQUE

A kind of ornament used in antiquity consisting of representations of medallions, sphinxes, foliage, and imaginary creatures.

GUTTER

On a building, a trough fixed under or along the eaves for draining rainwater from a roof.

HAMMER BEAM

A short horizontal beam, usually made of wood, extending from the top of a masonry wall outward towards the center of the enclosed space, but not completely traversing it. The projecting end is usually connected to the roof with a diagonal brace.

HATCHMENT

A lozenge-shaped panel painted with armorial bearings, used in funeral ceremonies and often afterwards displayed in a church.

HEADER

A brick laid in a wall so that only its end appears on the face of the wall. To add a varied appearance to brickwork, headers are alternated with "stretchers," bricks laid full length on their sides.

HOOD

An arched covering; when used to throw off rainwater, called hood-mould.

IMPOST

The uppermost part of a column or pillar supporting an arch.

JAMB

A vertical post supporting a window frame or doorway.

JOIST

A timber stretched from wall-to-wall to support floorboards.

KEYSTONE

A wedge-shaped or tapered stone placed at the top of an arch or vault. In vaulting it occurs at the intersection of the ribs of a ribbed vault.

KNEELER

A large approximately triangular stone at the foot of a gable, cut to have a horizontal bed and a top conforming, wholly or in part, to the slope of the gable.

LANCET or LANCET WINDOW

A long, narrow window with a sharply pointed head.

LANCET ARCH

A pointed arch, of which the width, or span, is narrow compared with the height.

LANTERN

Circular or polygonal windowed turret crowning a roof of a dome. Also the windowed stage of a crossing tower lighting the church interior.

LATH

The smallest piece of timber (2-5cms) across used in building, employed on rafters to support the roof covering or in a partition as a base for plaster.

LEAD

Symbol Pb. A soft, malleable, ductile, bluish-white, metallic element, extracted chiefly from galena and in buildings used for guttering, pipes, flashing, and as a roof covering.

LEADS (LEAD CAMES)

Strips of lead used to hold the panes of glass of a LEADED window.

LECTERN

A reading desk in a church for the reading of lessons.

LIGHTS

In a window, the openings between mullions.

LIME

Traditional material used for MORTAR or RENDER: soft, flexible and porous, traditional lime based materials should not be replaced with modern cement based alternatives, which are hard, rigid and impervious, and can be harmful to historic buildings.

LINTEL

A horizontal structural member spanning an opening (e.g. window or door). Usually made of wood, stone or steel (such as a beam). Carries the weight, and provides support to, the wall above the opening.

LOGGIA

Gallery, usually arcaded or colonnaded; sometimes free-standing.

LOZENGE

A diamond-shaped pattern characteristic of Romanesque decoration that is often carved around pillars, arches and doorways.

LUCARNE

Small gabled opening in a roof or spire.

MARBLE

A metamorphic rock formed by alteration of limestone or dolomite, often irregularly colored by impurities, and used especially in architecture and sculpture.

MISERICORD

A shelf placed on the underside of a hinged choir stall seat which, when the seat is turned up, provides the occupant with support during long periods of standing.

MODILLIONS

Consoles along the underside of a Corinthian or Composite cornice. Often used along an eaves cornice.

MOSAIC

A picture or decorative design made by setting small coloured pieces, as of stone or tile, into a surface.

MOULDING

A continuous, narrow surface (projecting or recesses, plain or ornamented) designed to break up a surface, to accent, or to decorate.

MULLION

Vertical post or upright dividing a window into two or more "lights".

MULLIONED

Divided by vertical bars or piers usually of stone, as in "mullioned windows".

NARTHEX

A porch or vestibule of a church, generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave.

NAVE

The central part of a church, extending from the narthex to the chancel and flanked by aisles.

NEWEL

Central or corner post of a staircase.

NICHE

A shallow recess in a wall designed to contain a statue or some other ornament.

NOGGIN

Brickwork infilling of a timber-framed wall.

OBELISK

A tall, four-sided shaft of stone, usually tapered and monolithic, that rises to a pointed pyramidal top.

OGEE

Double curve, bending first one way and then the other, as in an ogee or ogival arch.

ORDERS

The formalized versions of the post-and-lintel system in classical architecture. The main orders are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. They are Greek in origin but occur in Roman versions. Tuscan is a simple versions of Roman Doric. Though each order has its own conventions (3), there are many minor variations. The Composite capital combines Ionic volutes with Corinthian foliage. Superimposed orders: orders on successive levels, usually in the upward sequence of Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite.

ORIEL

A projecting window in a wall. Originally the term was given to a form of porch, often of wood.

OVERLIGHT

A horizontal opening over a door or window.

OVOLO

Wide convex moulding.

PALLADIAN

Following the examples and principles of Andrea Palladio (1508-80).

PANELLING

Wooden lining to interior walls, made up of vertical members and horizontals framing panels: also called wainscot. Raised and fielded: with the central area of the panel (field) raised up.

PANTILE

A roofing tile with an S-shaped profile, laid so that the down curve of one tile overlaps the up curve of the next one.

PARAPET

Wall for protection at any sudden drop. Also used to conceal a roof.

PARGETING

(lit. plastering): Exterior plaster decoration, either moulded in relief or incised.

PEDESTAL

An architectural support or base, as for a column or statue.

PEDIMENT

Low-pitched gable used in classical, Renaissance, and neo-classical architecture above a portico and above doors, windows, etc. It may be straight-sided or curved segmentally. Broken Pediment: one where the centre portion of the sloping sides is left open. Open Pediment: one where the centre portion of the base is left out.

PERPENDICULAR

Of or relating to a style of English Gothic architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries, characterized by emphasis of the vertical element.

PIANO NOBILE

Principal floor of a classical building above a ground floor or basement and with a lesser storey overhead.

PIER

Any Strong, solid support, frequently square in section or of composite section (compound pier).

PILASTER

A flat, rectangular, vertical member projecting from a wall of which it forms a part. Usually has a base and a capital and is often fluted. It is designed to be a flat representation of a classical column in shallow relief.

PILLAR

Usually a weight-carrying member, such as a pier or a column; sometimes an isolated, freestanding structure used for commemorative purposes.

PINNACLE

A pointed termination of a spire, buttress, or other extremity of a building.

PISCINA

A niche near the altar in a church, containing a small basin and drain for rinsing altar vessels and ceremonial ablutions.

PITCH

Roof slope.

PITCHING

Rough cobbling.

PLINTH

The projecting base of wall. Also, a PLINTH COURSE is a continuous course of stones supporting a wall.

PODIUM

A continuous raised platform supporting a building; or a large block of two or three storeys beneath a multi-storey block of smaller area.

POINTING

A exposed mortar jointing of masonry or brickwork. Types include flush, recessed and tuck (with a narrow channel filled with finer, whiter mortar). Historic buildings generally used a lime mortar.

PORCH

A covered platform, usually having a separate roof, at an entrance to a building.

PORTAL

An entrance, doorway, or gateway.

PULPIT

A raised and enclosed platform in a church from which a preacher delivers a sermon.

PURLIN

Horizontal longitudinal timber in a roof structure.

QUADRANGLE

Inner courtyard in a large building.

QUATREFOIL

Ornamental tracery in the form of a flower with four symmetrical petals, or any ornament with four foils or lobes.

QUOINS

Dressed stones at the angles of a building. Sometimes all the stones are of the same size; more often they are alternately large and small.

REBATE

A rectangular recess along the edge of a timber to receive a shutter, door or window

RELIEVING ARCH

An arch which encloses an arch or a window or other opening. It helps relieve some of the weight on the arch of the opening.

REGENCY

Strictly the period from 1811 to 1820 when George, Prince of Wales was Prince Regent due to the madness of his father George IV. In architecture it is more generally considered the period from the 1790's to about 1840.

RENDERING

Plastering of an outer wall.

REREDOS

An ornamental screen behind and above an altar. Can be painted, sculpted, or both.

RESPOND

A half pillar attached to and projecting from a wall, used to carry one end of an arch.

REVEAL

The part of the side of a window or door opening that is between the outer surface of a wall and the window or door frame; the jamb.

REVETMENT

Retaining wall.

RIBBED VAULTING

Stone or brick vaulting typically used for roofing and comprising a thin, light layer supported by a framework of arched ribs.

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

A style of architecture that flourished in Western Europe between 1050 and 1200. This style derived its name from the fact that it drew much of its influence from Roman architecture. In England, it is also called the Norman style. Some of the characteristic features of this school of architecture are; rounded arches; squat, massive pillars; small windows; simple, carved decoration.

ROOF

Single-framed: if consisting entirely of transverse members (such as rafters with or without braces, collars, tie-beams, king-posts or queen-posts, etc. [see below] not tied together longitudinally.
Double-framed: if longitudinal members (such as a ridge beam) are employed. As a rule in such cases the rafters are divided into stronger principals and weaker subsidiary rafters.
Hipped: roof with sloped instead of vertical ends.
Mansard: roof with a double slope, the lower slope being larger and steeper than the upper.
The following members have special names:
  Rafter: roof-timber sloping up from the wall plate to the ridge.
  Principal: principal rafter, usually corresponding to the main bay divisions of the nave or chancel below.
  Wall Plate: timber laid longitudinally on the top of a wall.
  Purlin: longitudinal member laid parallel with wall plate and ridge beam some way up the slope of the roof.
  Tie-beam: beam connecting the two slopes of a roof across at its foot, usually at the height of the wall plate, to prevent the roof from spreading.
  Collar-beam: tie-beam applied higher up the slope of the roof.
  Strut: upright timber connecting the tie-beam with the rafter above it.
  King-post: upright timber connecting a tie-beam and collar-beam with the ridge beam.
  Queen-posts: two struts placed symmetrically on a tie-beam or collar-beam.
  Braces: inclined timbers inserted to strengthen others. Usually braces connect a collar-beam with the rafters below or a tie-beam with the wall below. Braces can be straight or curved (also called arched).
  Hammer-beam: beam projecting at right-angles, usually from the top of a wall, to carry arched braces or struts and arched braces or struts and arched braces.

ROTUNDA

Building circular in plan.

ROUNDEL

A curved form, especially a semicircular panel, window, or recess.

RUBBLE WALL

A wall of uncoursed rubble.

RUSTICATION

Exaggerated treatment of masonry to give an effect of strength. The joints are usually recessed by V-section chamfering or square-section channeling.

SACRISTY

A strong room usually attached to the north side of the chancel where vestments and the utensils belonging to the altars were placed. It is synonymous with vestry.

SANDSTONE

A sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation and compaction of sand and held together by a natural cement, such as silica.

SASH WINDOW

A window formed with sashes, i.e. Sliding glazed frames running in vertical grooves; imported from Holland into England in the late C17.

SCREEN

A partition of stone or wood that separates without completely cutting off one part of a church from another part.

SEDILLA

In a church, a recessed seat, usually provided for the clergy or servers assisting at the celebrations

SEGMENTAL ARCH

Composed of a single segment, which is less than a semi-circle.

SHAFT

The main vertical part of a column between the base and the capital.

SILL

Horizontal member at the bottom of a window or door frame; or at the base of a timber-framed wall into which posts and studs are tenoned.

SLATE

A fine-grained metamorphic rock that splits into thin, smooth-surfaced layers. In building, most often used in this area for roofing.

SNECKED

Of masonry, with courses broken by smaller stones (snecks).

SOFFIT

The exposed undersurface of any overhead component of a building such as an arch, balcony, beam, cornice, lintel or vault.

SPANDRELS

Roughly triangular spaces between and arch and its containing rectangle, or between adjacent arches. Also non-structural panels under the windows in a curtain-walled building.

SPIRE

An elongated, pointed structure that rises from a tower, turret, or roof.

SPLAYED

An oblique angle or bevel given to the sides of an opening in a wall so that the opening is wider on one side of the wall than on the other.

SPROCKET

In a roof, a short timber placed on the back and at the foot of a rafter to form projecting eaves; hence a SPROCKETED roof.

STACK

A flue or chimney, or group of chimneys.

STAINED GLASS

Glass coloured by mixing pigments inherently in the glass, by fusing colored metallic oxides onto the glass, or by painting and baking transparent colors on the glass surface.

STAIRS

Dog-leg stair: parallel flights rising alternately in opposite directions, without an open well. Flying stair: cantilevered from the walls of a stairwell, without newels; sometimes called a Geometric stair when the inner edge describes a curve. Newel stair: ascending round a central supporting newel called a spiral stair or vice when in a circular shaft, winder when in a rectangular compartment. (Winder also applies to the steps on the turn). Well stair: with flights round a square open well framed by newel posts.

STANCHION

Upright structural member, of iron, steel or reinforced concrete.

STOUP

Holy water basin at the entrance to a church, usually on a pillar or set in a niche.

STOREY

A set of rooms on the same floor or level; a floor, or the space between two floors. Also, a horizontal division of a building's exterior considered architecturally, which need not correspond exactly with the stories within.

STRAPWORK

Decoration like interlaced leather straps. Late 16th and early 17th-century, or Victorian revival.

STRING

Sloping member holding the ends of the treads and risers of a staircase. Close string: a broad string covering the ends of the treads and risers. Open string: cut into the shape of the treads and risers.

STRING COURSE

A continuous projecting horizontal band set in the surface of a wall and usually moulded. Often in a different coloured brick or stone, and used for decoration.

STRUT

A roof timber, either upright and connected to the rafter above it, or sloping, connecting another post to the rafter.

STUDS

The upright timbers in a timber-framed building.

TERRACOTTA

Moulded and fired clay ornament or cladding.

TESTER

A cover or canopy suspended over a tomb or a pulpit. The tester may have a purely ornamental purpose or - where positioned over a pulpit - may be used as a sounding board to magnify and direct the preacher's voice.

TIE-BEAM

The main horizontal beam in a roof, connecting the bases of the rafters, usually just above a wall.

TIMBER FRAMING

Method of construction where the walls are built of timber framework with the spaces filled in by plaster or brickwork. Sometimes the timber is covered over with plaster or boarding laid horizontally.

TRACERY

Carved stonework of interlaced and branching ribs, particularly the lace-like stonework in the upper part of a Gothic window.

TRANSEPT

The transverse part of a church with a cruciform or cross-shaped floor plan.

TRANSOM

A horizontal crossbar in a window, over a door, or between a door and a window above it.

TRELLISWORK

An open pattern of interwoven strips, usually of wood but sometimes metal; also called latticework.

TREFOIL

Ornamental tracery in the form of a flower with three symmetrical petals.

TURRET

Very small tower, round or polygonal in plan.

TYMPANUM

The ornamental recessed space or panel enclosed by the cornices of a triangular pediment. Also, a similar space between an arch and the lintel of a portal or window.

VAULT

A masonry roof or ceiling constructed on the arch principle.
  A barrel or tunnel vault, semi-cylindrical in cross section, is in effect a deep arch or an uninterrupted series of arches, one behind the other, over an oblong space.
  In a cross-barrel vault, the main barrel (tunnel) vault is intersected at right angles with other barrel (tunnel) vaults at regular intervals.
  A quadrant vault is a half-barrel (tunnel) vault.
  A sexpartile vault is a rib vault with six panels.
  A fan vault is a development of lierne vaulting characteristic of English Perpendicular Gothic, in which radiating ribs form a fan-like pattern.
  A cross vault (or groin) is formed at the point at which two barrel (tunnel) vaults intersect at right angles.
  In a ribbed vault, there is a framework of ribs or arches under the intersections of the vaulting sections.

VESTRY

A room in, or attached to, a church where the clergy put on their vestments and where these robes and other sacred objects are stored; synonymous with a sacristy.

WEATHER BOARDING

Wall cladding of overlapping horizontal boards.

WHITEWASH

A mixture of lime and water, often with whiting, size, or glue added, that is used to whiten walls, fences, or other structures.

Back to top

Page updated: 21 Dec 2007